I rarely remember the exact moment I begin writing a play or novel. If you asked me to pinpoint the precise date I started scratching out a particular project, most of the time I’d shrug: “No idea.” But there’s one play for which I do know the inception date.

That play is The Bottle Tree, and the day I started writing it was Friday, December 14, 2012—the day of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.